The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefore.
There are no related patent applications.
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to sensors and weapons for underwater vehicles, and more particularly to a suite of cellular sensors and weapons forming an outer surface, or skin, of an underwater vehicle.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Currently, underwater vehicles used in surveillance, target detection and acquisition and/or in defensive and offensive engagements are fitted with various sensor suites and weapons. The sensor suites may include acoustic, electromagnetic, thermal and photo-optical sensors that are, in many instances, mounted on the outer surface of the vehicle and require physical connection to the vehicle. At times, it becomes advantageous to deploy sensors or arrays of sensors at appreciable distances from the vehicle. In some instances, the sensors can be placed in areas where the vehicle could not operate so as to provide a standoff capability to the vehicle. Further, the separation between the sensors and the vehicle can provide for increased signal detection and identification. In order to deploy such sensors, they may be placed in position by the vehicle, they may be launched from the vehicle, or they may be let out from the vehicle on tethers. Placing the sensors in position exposes the vehicle to possibly hostile environments. Launching the sensors or letting them out on tethers generates acoustic transients that may subject the vehicle to detection by adversaries.
Weapons are typically carried internal to the vehicle and are launched through ports in the outer surface. Launching such weapons will typically require opening the appropriate port, ejecting the weapon into the surrounding medium and closing the port once the weapon is clear. As with sensor launching and tethering, the opening and closing of weapons ports and the ejection of the weapons generate acoustic transients that may be detectable by potential adversaries. Remote deployment of weapons from the vehicle suffers from the same concerns as does remote sensor deployment. Further, in many engagement scenarios, it may not be possible to deploy remote sensors to assist in directing the weapon to a target.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide sensors for an underwater vehicle that can be deployed without exposing the vehicle to hostile environments.
Another object of the present invention is to provide sensors for an underwater vehicle that can be deployed while generating minimal acoustic gradients.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide weapons for an underwater vehicle that can also be deployed while generating minimal acoustic gradients.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a system of sensors and weapons for an underwater vehicle that share deployment characteristics.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a system of sensors and weapons that can be remotely deployed and maintain communication with the vehicle and with each other.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more obvious hereinafter in the specification and drawings.
In accordance with the present invention, a system of sensors and weapons for an underwater vehicle is provided that is attached to the outer surface of the vehicle. The sensors and weapons are in the form of individual cells, with each cell engineered to have specific functional capabilities, e.g., acoustic sensor cells, electromagnetic sensor cells, communications cells, control cells and munitions cells. A layer of cells is arranged on the outer surface of the vehicle and each cell is electromagnetically coupled to the surface so as to cover the vehicle. The cells form a multi-functional cellular surface, or skin, over the vehicle surface. Further layers of cells can be added over previous layers, depending on the capabilities desired. The arrangement of cells within each layer will also be dependent on the desired capabilities and the overall mission of the vehicle. For example, a vehicle used solely for surveillance may have only sensor and communications cells. Each cell has a unique identity known to the vehicle such that cells may be individually deployed from the vehicle by decoupling the identified cell from the vehicle. The unique identity also allows a cell to return to its appropriate position on the vehicle when desired. One or more types of cells are engineered to be mobile. Once decoupled, these motive cells can transport themselves and other cells as necessary, to positions remote from the vehicle. Thus the vehicle can remain clear of a hostile environment while deploying sensors and/or weapons cells into the environment.
The system described provides sensors and weapons that are deployed from an underwater vehicle with minimal acoustic gradient generation. The cells are merely electromagnetically decoupled from the vehicle, without requiring port openings or launch systems. The system includes both sensor and weapons cells that can be deployed simultaneously. By further deploying appropriate communications cells, the sensor cells communicate target location information to the weapons cells to assist in acquiring targets.